Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

English homework?! You heathens! It's Ancient Greek and Hebrew or Aramaic or nothing - he can learn to speak in tongues.

Indeed:

Members of Tennessee tea parties presented state legislators with five priorities for action Wednesday, including “rejecting” the federal health reform act, establishing an elected “chief litigator” for the state and “educating students the truth about America.”

. . .

Regarding education, the material they distributed said, “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.”

That would include, the documents say, that “the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy.”

The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculums, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”

Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.

“The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody — not all equally instantly — and it was their progress that we need to look at,” said Rounds, whose website identifies him as a Vietnam War veteran of the Air Force and FedEx retiree who became a lawyer in 1995.

It's nearly impossible to describe how much this garbage pisses me off.

"made-up criticism"?????????????????????????????????

it was just a little slavery

"not all equally instantly." I mean the fucking zen koan beauty of that is just . . .

"Look, the Indians weren't even USING that land, so how much of an intrusion was it, really?"

how does he reconcile equally instant equality with slavery

And as if on cue:

Veto override gives parents more control over what their kids are taught

CONCORD - The Legislature has passed a controversial bill that would give parents greater control over course materials taught in schools.

Both the House and Senate voted to override the governor's veto of HB 542, which requires school districts to adopt policies to allow "an exception to specific course material based on a parent's or legal guardian's determination that the material is objectionable."

The House failed in an attempt in to override the veto in its last session in November. But after voting to reconsider the measure, the House passed the override on Wednesday 255 to 122, meeting the two-thirds requirement.

The Senate then voted 17-5 to override the governor.

The bill was inspired by a controversy at Bedford High School, where parents of a student objected to the book, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America.”

That's a great fucking book and should be required reading in every HS social science curriculum btw.

I frankly think of that as not only anti-social but it could lead to something akin to child-endangerment.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xJWa77A8OSw/S-Cu-hNCliI/AAAAAAAAFnU/gPKnqDRjazA/s1600/calvinmath2.jpg

does this jan brewer finger pointing at elitist thin skinned petulant kenyan president work on anyone other than lizard brain gop folk?

no

I love that he's the divider.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/obamas-strategic-tarmac-attack.html

President Obama’s people have portrayed his tarmac confrontation with Arizona's Jan Brewer as a kind of accidental blowup stemming from his pique that her book allegedly misrepresented a private conversation they had. If it’s an accident, though, it’s a pretty fortuitous one.

Arizona is one of the few states Obama lost in 2008 where his campaign thinks it can compete in 2012. He’s no longer running against a favorite son, and the fast-growing Latino population might give him a shot. But in Arizona, and elsewhere, Obama need to energize Latinos, who tend to vote at low rates.

The Republican strategy is sort of a miniature version of their broader legislative strategy. Republicans, along with a handful of conservative Democrats, blocked comprehensive immigration reform and then blocked even the modest DREAM Act, and their message is that Latinos should vote for them because Obama failed to carry out his campaign promise to pass those bills. It’s actually quite clever.

Since Obama can’t get anything passed through Congress, one option is to simply clarify that he opposes the GOP’s most draconian elements. So: A public shouting match with a governor who’s unpopular with Arizonans in general and despised by Latinos. (Her job approval with Arizona Latinos is minus 40.)

An accident? I doubt it.

(Her job approval with Arizona Latinos is minus 40.)

lolizona

stupid people tend to be conservative lol

altho I don't trust IQ tests as a measure of anything whatsoever and iirc not too many people here do

i was just about to post that, with a similar caution

3,710 comments

o_O

enh, afaik IQ tests are vastly different than the (funnily, in this case) racist/classist/etc tests of old

i had one recently as part of a neuropsych evaluation and it was a lot more about mensa-style problem solving and less about cultural literacy and the like

point being: i am quite happy to accept the relevance of IQ tests if it means i get to call conservatives stupid

Trolling my bro-in-law in the "conservatives are too stupid to make me a grilled cheese sandwich, much less govern a city, state or nation" is the only thing that manages to shake him from his usual calm. Which is obviously catnip to me.

My nephew was a senior in high school in North Carolina during the 2008 election season. They had a mock debate in his civcs class in which my nephew was assigned the role of Obama, another student was McCain, and the teacher was the moderator.

My nephew supported McCain/Palin and wound up voting for them (argh) but in the role of Obama, one of his arguments was that Palin lacked experience. His teacher - the moderator - cut him off and lectured the class about how scary it was that Obama, who was likely a Muslim, was willing to negotiate w/ terrorists and how Palin's experience as governor made her more qualified than BHO. When they resumed the debate, my nephew was instructed to make clear that he was saying only what the other side would probably say.

good luck usa

I suppose if we all get to call conservatives stupid based on that study, then we might have to swallow The Bell Curve, too. I prefer to call some of their ideas stupid based on the thought process by which they arrived at them and the arguments used to defend them. Much less of a mine field.

3,710 comments

over 24,000 now

mental!

Panetta confirms use of Stalinism vs "terrorism"

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/30/leon_panettas_explicitly_authoritarian_decree/singleton/

Another Congressional Democratic compromise

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/unions-set-to-blast-dems-for-selling-out-on-faa-reauthorization/2012/01/30/gIQAeH9pcQ_blog.html

oh no not a strongly worded letter!

Norquist probably won't have to resort to this:

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/29/414010/norquist-republicans-will-impeach-obama-if-he-doesnt-extend-bush-tax-cuts/?mobile=nc

lol they won't have the votes by then

Some fellow defends drone strikes.

Greenwald will be mocking that, if he has not already.

Big New Yorker piece based on internal White House memos and such on the failure of Obama's attempt to be "post-partisan"

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all

4 out of 13 ain't bad i guess

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16806006

great news, everybody!

The nation's leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates — creating a bitter rift, linked to the abortion debate, between two iconic organizations that have assisted millions of women.

The change will mean a cutoff of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly for breast exams.

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/31/146160911/susan-g-komen-halts-grants-to-planned-parenthood

i need to read up on that, seems truly gross.

but on first glance "hundreds of thousands of dollars" doesn't seem like a whole lot of money

It's blowing up all over Twitter and the feminist blogs I read. And even beyond the money, it's the kowtowing to right-wing bullying that's pissing people off. It's going to be an absolute PR disaster for Komen, and why organizations insist on scoring own-goals like this for no legitimate reason whatsoever is a mystery.

Susan G Koman is such a fraud anyway.

http://www.naturalnews.com/033783_Komen_for_the_Cure_pinkwashing.html

http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/breast-cancer-business-scams

"How come no research into mega-dose IV vitamin C for cancer? There are studies proving its efficacy. Hey Komen, how come you haven't consulted with TV star Suzanne Somers about her breast cancer cure from European mistletoe extract injections? She wrote a bestseller about it."

?

i need to read up on that, seems truly gross.

but on first glance "hundreds of thousands of dollars" doesn't seem like a whole lot of money

Interesting, "gross" is how other FB and Twitter friends have described it. OTM description.

I didn't renown before today that Santorum claims that abortions cause breast cancer, which, what the fucking christ.

Oh yeah, that's been a huge - and, obvs, widely debunked - anti-choicer talking point for a few years now.

After the Komen news broke yesterday left blogger TBogg tweeted: "Tomorrow should see a wave of links to discredited studies asserting that abortion causes breast cancer. #justmakingshitup"

He also suggests:

We’ve  done this before, but you can make a donation to Planned Parenthood and request a thank you card be sent to

Karen Handel
Senior VP of Fail
c/o Susan G. Komen Foundation
P.O. Box 650309
Dallas, TX 75265-0309

(UPDATE) From a reader:

Hi TBogg,

Just made a donation of 50 clams, but I would have loved to have gifted it to Karen Handel as you suggested in your post. maybe you could update the post to let people know that they need to do it as an “Honorary Giving” rather than a “One Time Gift”, which doesn’t offer the choice to send a card

I didn't renown before today that Santorum claims that abortions cause breast cancer, which, what the fucking christ.

― garbage corn fan (Je55e), Wednesday, 1 February 2012 05:55 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fwiw the backstory with this is that there are studies suggesting that while you're pregnant, your susceptibility to breast cancer decreases; therefore, in stopping being pregnant - having an abortion - your likelihood of getting cancer reverts to its pre-pregnancy norm. it was a cheap kinda conspiracy theory for quite a while but afaik had sorta fallen out of use; as well as obviously not being a causal thing, the key issue w/it is that it concerns the same 'risk' that one inherits by a) just not getting pregnant or b) having a baby

a spin on the new Obama task force that NY attorney General Schneiderman will be involved with, investigating fraudulent mortgage practices (Schneiderman, and the California and Delaware AGs had resisted the Obama effort to reach a quick settlement)

For three years, the Obama administration had not wished to pursue such a course. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner did not want to subject Wall Street to this kind of poking around through its records, much less to prosecutions that could compel major banks to be restructured. But over the past year, as Schneiderman hung tough, the political winds shifted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eric-schneiderman-new-york-ag-shaped-drive-to-hold-banks-accountable/2012/01/30/gIQAjWxCgQ_story.html

I need coffee because at first I was all "why did his parents name him General"

like Sargent Shriver?

that's such a great name. it's like a chaucer character or something

shades of Major Major Major Major

ha

anti-immigrant bill destroys state economy - quel surprise